Are U.S. kids consuming too many vitamins?

The addition of vitamins and minerals to everyday foods, particularly breakfast cereals, was meant to boost children’s health. But now, researchers are concerned that American children may be consuming too many vitamins and minerals.

A report from the Environmental Working Group says that the explosion in fortified foods, coupled with poor government regulation, means that U.S. children are now consuming too many vitamins and minerals. For the most part, they say this won’t cause harm, but for some, there is a fine line between an optimum level that benefits health, and an excess level that causes harm. Children are more vulnerable to overdosing because they have smaller bodies.

Particularly, the report cites several academic and government sources that say millions of American children under the age of 8 are getting too much vitamin A, zinc and niacin from fortified foods and supplements.

Too much vitamin A can cause brittle nails and hair loss, liver damage, skeletal abnormalities, as well as development abnormalities in the fetus of pregnant women. Hip fractures can also be a problem in older adults.

Excess zinc can stop the body from absorbing copper and result in anemia, changes in red and white blood cells and impaired immune function. Too much niacin or vitamin can cause rashes, nausea and liver toxicity.

The report also lists the top 23 cereals that contain the highest added doses of these vitamins and minerals, and another list with snacks. Researchers recommend that parents limit their children’s intake of fortified foods to no more than 20 to 25 percent of the adult Daily Value for vitamin A, zinc and niacin.

Dancing hysteria: June 24, 1374

A group of people in the medieval German town of Aachen begin dancing wildly and soon others join them in a bizarre incident that lasts for days, then spreads to nearby communities in the Rhine River Valley. According to eyewitnesses, “people join hands, dance, leap, scream and shake for hours” and many of them appear to “see visions.” Even though their feet are bloody and bruised, most dance until they collapse from exhaustion. Some actually die from heart attacks or strokes.

Onlookers believe the dancers are possessed and exorcisms are performed on some of them. People in the town also pray to St. John, who some believe may be responsible for the strange behavior. Musicians are encouraged to play along with the dancers, then slow the music down with the hope that that will get them to stop. But it actually spurs more people to join the dancing.

Some dancers roll around in the dirt, squealing and acting like animals; others rip off their clothing and begin having sex with other dancers. Some scream for people to beat the bottoms of their feet while they writhe on the ground, or they beg people to throw them high in the air.

What caused this madness?

There have been several theories. One explanation that has been suggested is ergot poisoning. Ergot is a parasitical fungus that grows on grain, and that, when ingested, can cause hallucinogenic effects, similar to the impact of LSD. But that doesn’t explain why it would cause people to dance and affect everyone the same way. Others believe it may have been staged by members of a religious cult, that it was some kind of ancient banned Greek or Roman ritual that otherwise would have resulted in harsh punishment or death. Those who subscribe to this theory point out that many of the dancers did not actually live in the towns, but were passing through on a pilgrimage.

But the most popular explanation is that the dancing mania was one of the earliest recorded forms of mass hysteria related to communal stress. That region of Germany had suffered terrible flooding a few months earlier. Once people saw others dancing, they felt compelled to join in. Almost two centuries later, a similar dancing outbreak occurred in Strasbourg, France, a town that had been ravaged by syphilis, smallpox, leprosy, the bubonic plague and starvation. It started with just one woman, named Frau Troffea, who started dancing nonstop in the street.

This went on for days and soon others joined her dancing frenzy until almost 400 townspeople were involved. It lasted almost a month and doctors, who believed the dancers were suffering from “hot blood,” recommended that the best treatment was to let them to dance it out. Places were created in the town’s market to allow this to occur. But once again the dancing hysteria took its toll—several people died of heart attacks, strokes or exhaustion.

A more recent case of inexplicable mass hysteria occurred in Tanganyika in 1962. It started with three young girls giggling and laughing uncontrollably and spread through their school. Over the next several months, more than half the school’s students were affected and it had to close. Then the laughing epidemic spread to nearby villages and ultimately 14 schools had to close because students were unable to go to class. Almost 1,000 people, mostly school aged children, were affected. The hysteria lasted off and on for more than a year.

Research by Purdue professor Christian Hempelmann found that it most likely was caused by what’s known as Mass Psychogenic Illness or MPI. He believes it stems from shared stress in a community. “It usually occurs in a group of people who don’t have a lot of power,” he explained in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.“MPI is a last resort for people of a low status. It’s an easy way for them to express that something is wrong. That may be why it has come to be associated more often with women.”

Hempelmann pointed out that Tanganyika had just won its independence and that at least some of the young girls affected had reported they were.

Too much TV tied to early death

It’s easy to want to relax in front of the TV after a hard day of work, but watching for three hours or longer a day can significantly increase the risk for death.

Researchers wanted to see how three types of sedentary behavior – including watching television, using the computer and driving – influenced the risk of death from any cause.

For the study, the team analyzed the sedentary behavior of 13,284 healthy participants who were an average of 37 years old. They were monitored for a median of 8.2 years.

During follow-up, 97 deaths occurred, 19 of which were from cardiovascular causes, 46 from cancer and 32 from other causes. The results showed that participants who reported watching three or more hours of television a day had double the risk of early death from all causes, compared to those who watched one hour or less of TV a day.

Aspirin may lower pancreatic cancer risk

New research suggests that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer may be decreased significantly in some people by taking a small daily dose of aspirin.

In the study, researchers analyzed the effects of aspirin use in 362 patients with pancreatic cancer at 30 hospitals in Connecticut, as well as 690 people without cancer, between the years 2005 and 2009.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, showed that the participants who regularly took low-dose aspirin—defined in the study as 75 to 325 milligrams per day—for six years or less had a 39 percent lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer than the participants who took no aspirin. Additionally, the participants who regularly took low-dose aspirin for more than 10 years had a 60 percent reduction in pancreatic cancer risk.

The researchers noted that the study’s findings do not suggest that everyone should start taking daily aspirin to prevent pancreatic cancer, as aspirin’s side effects—such as internal bleeding and potential life-threatening complications—may outweigh its benefits. Researchers instead concluded that people already taking low-dose aspirin for various reasons may have the added benefit of reduced pancreatic cancer risk.